We can still get Amazon delivered. And, as I tire of mentioning, I live in a (mostly) enlightened bit.
5 Jun 2023
103
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This is 100% my issue. I used to lie in bed and read, now I lie in bed and aimlessly scroll. It's a terrible habit that I need to break.
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I’ve been tested and apparently am not ADD/ADHD but talk to anyone that knows me and they say I have all the markers. I’ve always been distracted and “a fidget” but the smartphone has destroyed my ability to concentrate on much of anything.
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This is why I love books. I don’t read any on my kindle or phone. The turning of pages and taking my time indulging in them has really helped me with stress.
My wife thinks I am a hoarder due to the amount of novels and hardcovers I have accumulated but I have a lovely library in my office and it is all pretty neat and tidy. It looks chaotic (and I know I am ADD) but I know where everything is much to the chagrin of the missus.
I currently own over 6000 books. I will never read all of them but I am not stressed having them. Ah the benefits of owning a huge house.
Chicago: Lost in literature.
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I also need to put the fucking phone down. Read a proper book last night. Not well written and a small print run I think but still worked very well. Factory Fairy Tales by Ged Duffy. It uses language of the time which we might consider unfortunate now. Manchester football, fighting and music from the early 70s. Polishing it would make it less.
But not reading on my phone meant I hadn't unknowingly switched to social doom scrolling. -
I have the opposite problem. I put the radio on, put the fucking phone down, shut my eyes, and fall asleep before I really want to.
I have a difficult relationships with books these days. They used to be the best way to accumulate knowledge (ideas and philosophies as well as facts and techniques). At the speed it takes to actually learn from them, compared to other methods, you are effectively paddling backwards (in respect to an ever changing world) while you waste time reading.
I also no longer really enjoy the process of reading. I don't particularly want to have some random individuals out of date curated view of a subject (fact or fiction), when I can spend the time sourcing my own information. Very many wider sources of detailed information are now available virtually instantaneously, where that was not possible before the communications age. I've always been a derive from first principles sort of person, than a take someone elses view on trust, and remember it.
I is also probably ADHD:
Textbook.
If you are like me, I imagine this is indeed very bitter sweet. I have had occasion to direct my thoughts recently to people who I knew, who are now dead. For someone who has almost no memory in a general ongoing daily functional sense, it is remarkable how vivid and detailed these thoughts can be. To an extent that they do overwhelm me, and leave me a little panicy...for such a 'real' feeling memory, that I know is forever gone. It feels to me to be almost overwhelming to be the last living holder of these feelings and memories. This isn't necessarily even a particularly emotive memory, it can just be a memory of a thing that happened or we did....doesn't even have to be a person...it also happens for places or pets. But to a person or thing to which I felt connected, that is forever gone. It's definitely connected to the sense of loss. Being an adult is carrying these scars, and finding a way to drag yourself through in a functioning way. And it can be quite shit. but it's better than the alternative. It would be lovely and simple to be your classic fascist sociopath, and not make an emotional connection with things that you couldn't discard or monetise, for your convenience. Which I suppose is why they do it. I can't help but think it might be a better world if we all saw each other as warm blooded, thinking, feeling, and valuable. Better socially...but much more problematic when it comes to oppression and exploitation of productive units. But for those of us who are not sociopaths, the shell that we wear to get through the day can still crack and leak, and when it does it's not necessarily something that can just be easily taped up.
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I like reading my Kindle. I read at least 30 mins to an hour every night.
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I have to read a book in one go. Which means it's only really on holiday where I have the time for it. And then only because reading a book, is marginally better than being on holiday. No point reading a book half an hour at a time with my memory.
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Yeah, this is me.
I've recently "read" Shogun Part One the audiobook. I listened to about ten minutes a day while going to sleep. Occasionally an hour on the train but I'd rather play Zelda. I'm sure Shogun is a great story, but I had no idea who anyone was for most of the story due to my memory and heavily interrupted listening style.
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Audiobooks are not reading. Shogun the book is 1200 pages long. I finished it in three weeks. Loved it.
This is why I didn’t really like the recent show as they changed a lot of elements in the books that didnt really make sense. The James Clavell book is fucking great and like Dune should have been translated literally.
Chicago: wordsmith.
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Henry Cavill, James Carville and James Clavell. Well, I've never seen them in the same room at the same time.
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Say Nothing whilst not quite as good as red Notice really is a very very good book. Holy shit what a mess the Troubles were. Way worse than I htought. I am not sure the show is going to do the book justice but I am going to try. One lingering issue with the book is that we discover the third shooter in the missing Jean McConville +++++++++SPOILER ALERT+++++++
Moving on to another book set in Ireland but this time fiction. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett which has been highlyt recommended to me...
Chicago: Re-visiting the fair isle.
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That's hardly fair. After that goal against liverpool he should never have had to work again.
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Good book, that. Set in Mayo which I recall being one of Donny's favourite places. Don't think he features though.
